The Comox Valley Glacier Kings have been showing some positive signs lately despite their 6-4 loss to the high-powered Westshore Wolves a couple nights ago. Even in that game, the Yeti held a two goal lead late in the second period. The club has been playing good defensive hockey for most of the season and went into that game with the second best ‘goals against per game’ team but the wheels sort of fell off. They were playing a simple game, capitalized on their power play opportunities and made Westshore pay for their mistakes but got a little bit away from that in the third period. Late goals by the Wolves in both the second and third periods as well as a very fortunate bounce in the neutral zone which led to the game winning goal was the difference.

If we can put the above mentioned game aside, the simple, defensive style of game has been effective. The Glacier Kings don’t have a lot of fire power so it make a lot of sense. After 15 games, their top scorer is Zaya Morrow who has 14 points. To put that in perspective, the Peninsula Panthers have 6 players with at least 14 points and Westshore has 5. So the systems that head coach/GM Curtis Toneff has in place are geared towards safer plays and a strong defensive presence which also includes penalty killing. He talked about why his squad has had success keeping the puck out of their own net, “I think that it’s a will to defend. We’ve had a lot of conversations with our team. We’re not the flashiest bunch but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a lot of success. Like I said before, it starts with our veterans and we’ve gamed our young guys to play at the next level like most of them want. To win, you have to be able to play a very good ‘B’ game. A ‘B’ game is your play without the puck. Your stick positioning, your posture, stuff like that. Your ‘A’ game is making plays, getting points, getting offensive looks. There’s not many players that will be able to head to the next level without improving their ‘B’ game. I think they’re aware of that. If you want to win, the team’s game as a whole without the puck is key. That ‘will’ to defend has to be there to have success, especially for a team like us, maybe a little younger, maybe a little less offensively powered than other teams.” Obviously this team is built around ‘defence first’ and taking advantage of what the other teams give you offensively. Comox is the second worst team in ‘goals per game’ ahead of only the Kerry Park Islanders. The GKings scoring only averages 2.4 goals per game so your defensive play has to be spot on.

Part of being a good defensive team also requires good goaltending. For the most part, that area has been pretty good. Silas Dromarsky has only been given two starts this season but has looked very good in both. He shutout the Oceanside Generals last Saturday and is the current ‘Goaltender of the Week’ in the VIJHL. Toneff gave his thought on him, “He’s kind of like a gamer. He looks steadier and more confident in games than practices to be honest with you. I think that’s what you want from a player or goalie. I’d rather have a gamer than a guy that’s really good in practice and not so much in a game. He’s a little bigger than our other two so he creates a bit of a different look in there. I remember one puck, a player trying to score ‘short side shelf’ and it just kind of hit him. Sometimes that little bit of extra size can go a long way. He hasn’t played in a long time, like 3 weeks or a month, so kudos to him because that isn’t easy to do. You sit around day after day wondering when you’re next opportunity will come. He seized the moment.” Dromarsky has allowed just one total goal in his two games this season and has stopped 52 of 53 shots.

So Saturday’s game against Saanich will be interesting. You have a team like the Glacier Kings who have trouble scoring playing the Predators who give up a ton of goals. They have given up the second most goals of any team in the league so we’ll have to see if Comox Valley’s offence can take advantage of that. With that being said, they were shutout by Saanich in their only meeting earlier this season.

Darryl Skender